Posts Tagged ‘Add new tag’

of the value of a new sentient being in this topsy-turvey world of ours. Here’s the link!

Singer asks at the end of his essay: What do you think?

Readers are invited to respond to the following questions in the comment section below:

If a child is likely to have a life full of pain and suffering is that a reason against bringing the child into existence?

To begin with, it seems to me impossible for any parent, unless they are confirmed pessimists, or optimists, to have a clear idea of the life their new child can have. It’s a throw of dice at best!

If a child is likely to have a happy, healthy life, is that a reason for bringing the child into existence?

I’m tempted to say that this is enough of a reason to give birth to a new sentient being. My wife hopes for a blue eyed baby boy to occupy her time fully. What to make of that wish, or reason to have a child?

Once again I am loath to say NO such a life is not worth living. For me there are really only moments of sheer joy which I celebrate with all the abandon of a 74+year old. It’s great when it’s happening and it makes a lot of shit go away!

Is a world with people in it better than a world with no sentient beings at all?

A world without sentient beings is not in any conventional sense a world. We are part and parcel of this world, sentient or not!

Would it be wrong for us all to agree not to have children, so that we would be the last generation on Earth?

Only another sentient being like Peter Singer could propose such an eventuality. Agreeing to become the last generation on Earth is a devil’s bargain! And I don’t believe in God or the devil, whatever that is!

In some Canadian water, results were more than 100 times U.S. limit

Sitting here in China where I drink tap water which has been filtered for chemicals and other undesirable stuff, I chuckle thinking of those Canadians who continue to drink “foul water” from plastic bottles, which foul the Canadian landscape also, and empty their wallets unnecessarily.

Since Robert McCrum’s recent book about the English language phenomenon the world over is being reviewed in many parts of the world where English is used for everyday discourse, as for example in Malaysia, India, and hopefully in certain parts of China like Shanghai, a Google search this morning 2010/5/24 listed more than one hundred relevant citations which is something of a record for us.

Since I spend so much time Webbing I had to read it and be surprised that the article put a new spin on the provocative idea that the “Open Web” is evolving to an end in some ways better and other ways less than democratic! Here’s the key quote:

But a kind of virtual redlining is now under way. The Webtropolis is being stratified. Even if, like most people, you still surf the Web on a desktop or laptop, you will have noticed pay walls, invitation-only clubs, subscription programs, privacy settings and other ways of creating tiers of access. All these things make spaces feel “safe” — not only from viruses, instability, unwanted light and sound, unrequested porn, sponsored links and pop-up ads, but also from crude design, wayward and unregistered commenters and the eccentric voices and images that make the Web constantly surprising, challenging and enlightening.

So things are a-changing even on the Web! What’s new about that fact of Web existence.

A few days ago I commented here about the connection I found between a Big Think video by Stephen Fry and Bertrand Russell‘s “History of Western Philosophy” . This morning I read a new blog hosted by NY Times, The Stone, that we are promised will offer us regular writings by a variety of philosopher’s curated by Simon Chritchley.